How to beat the Low Buy-In Turbo SNGs
This guide is for someone who wants to consistently win money playing low buy-in SNGs. The best way to make money at high buy-in SNGs is to start out making money at low buy-in SNGs and slowly move up after learning to adjust, so if that's your ultimate goal then this works too.
Start by making sure you know a few terms that pop up often:
If any other terms confuse you check here first.
If that doesn't work use google.
The first thing you should do to get serious about winning is to KEEP GOOD RECORDS.
SNGTracker is a free tool available here. I can't think of a reason not to use it or something comparable. You have to manually enter PokerStars results but can easily set up the importation of PartyPoker ones. If you can remember, leave a comment on how you went out, or the hand the cost you most of your chips. If you end up seeing that you keep calling all-in raises with worse hands than your opponent, then think about that the next time your oppeonent raises you all-in and your hand is not that strong. If you have a streak of losing when you got all your chips in as a favorite, being able to see that should help you know to keep playing well and the cards will even out.
With that out of the way, here's the "guide":
The way to win SNGs, and to win at all poker really, is to take advantage of your opponents' mistakes while not making them yourself. The guides below are all good ways to balance those 2 concepts with relatively simple strategies (There are many more guides, but these 3 seem good). Give a look to all 3, especially noting the common themes. Then we'll expand on why these common themes exist.
Start with the one I learned from which can downloaded as a Word document here. The guide to beating the 10+1s at PartyPoker is a 1 page guide that is filled with good information. You can print it out and keep it by your computer or tape it to the back of your girlfriend's head. The Negatives: Even at 1 page, it is a little cumbersome if you are trying to follow it to the letter. It was also written for a era that has passed, specifically the days when partypoker had 10 hand levels and 800 starting chips. I also feel that the strategy might still encourage a few too many mistakes from people who have difficulty playing post-flop by getting them into hands they have trouble playing.
Moneymaker's guide is pretty decent despite the crap he gets for winning the WSOP and not being an absolute world-class player. It's put a bit more simply than the first one but assumes you don't need as much hand-holding. If the pot odds part has you confused, go here or just google "pot odds".
This post by CrisBrown at 2+2 also gives a good concise strategy. I don't really agree with slowplaying AA/KK but other than that I think this guide is very well done for such a short guide.
---Now, think about what the strategies have in common?
They all advocate playing few hands early on. They all advocate becoming aggressive in stealing blinds later. 2 of them mention (the 3rd probably forgot or thought it obvious) the important concept of having to have a much better hand to call a raise than to raise yourself. These 3 concepts, along with awareness of your opponents play, are the keys to becoming a winning player at low buy-in SNGs.
1. Play Few Hands Early On.
Why? Because you don't need to play many and doing so is likely to get you into trouble unless you are good at playing post-flop. If you are that good at it you probably aren't trying to win $6 SNGs. While everyone else is playing their hands you are watching how the other players play, seeing who is folding a lot (like you), who is raising a lot and who is calling everything down. Also if it gets to showdown you are looking at what kinds of hands they play and how they play them. For the hands you do play, you are trying to get into situations where your decisions are easy for the most part. What situations are those?
A) AA, KK, QQ - These are hands that you can raise very big with (5-6x BB + and extra BB for each limper already in, if already raised then you can go 3-4x the current pot size) and be willing to go all-in with preflop. Postflop you are wanting to be getting all your money in in cases where you don't flop an overcard and be careful when you do flop one.
B) 22-JJ - I like to limp in with these and if it has been raised call raises up to about 1/15th of my stack (as Moneymaker recommends). With these cards you are hoping to flop a set. If the flop is all cards lower than your pair then you proceed betting but with caution. If there are overcards almost always shut it down. Your opponents give you plenty of chances to take their chips, you can pick and choose the best of them.
C) AKs, AKo - These are kind of in between. I like to raise pretty big with these hands. I feel much better about playing them when I have position. Whether you want to go all-in preflop with them depends on the opponent, but calling an all-in raise with them is usually a mistake early on. Make a standard ~2/3 pot continuation bet if you miss the flop and be prepared to fold to a reraise.
In all the above situations you are trying to take advantage of your opponents mistakes (overvaluing top pair when you flop a set, loose calls of large raises) while not making them yourself. You also are allowing other people to make mistakes while you watch. Every time another player busts out of a SNG, your chances of winning money go up.
2. Be aggressive stealing blinds in the later stages.
A lot of this depends on reading people, which is point 4. Some people don't realize how valuable those blinds are. And what kind of hands you can steal with. I was going to post some examples but really you should go to this site, download the software and run through the free tutorial on blind stealing. It should make it very clear how much it is worth stealing and how many hands you can do it with.
Late in a SNG (blinds about 10% of my original stack) I make my standard raise about 2.5 x BB (adjust for opponents) and if I think I can get away with it I steal with all sorts of hands when I am in position. After all I have been playing tight up until now so I get credit for having a hand the first few times. Soon they may get sick of it and reraise when I have a legitimate hand. I like stealing with cards like 97, J8, even 65. This way when you get called your cards are probably live (the caller doesn't have them) and you have a deceptive hand. When you hit the flop they often think you missed and when you miss they often think you hit. You can also easily fold if reraised pre-flop. If you can be aggressive at the right times stealing blinds you can become a great SNG player.
As the other links have said, when the BB is 10% or more of your chips (or the players' chips left to act), you will usually be raising all-in (unless you are trapping with a great hand). If you think you can get away with it sometimes it is very smart to do this with a wide variety of hands. You will be increasing your stack significantly and you will be cultivating an aggressive image that usually makes weak players afraid to steal your blinds.
3. You often need a much better hand to call a raise than to raise yourself late in a SNG.
This is often called the "gap concept" due to the wide gap between raising and calling hands. Many people play this backwards and call with all sorts of things but only raise with great hands. You want to be very smart about calling raises and know that your cards must be very good. The link above to SNG Power Tools also will get you a tutorial in this concept. Work through it and see the concept played out in pure numbers.
Another point about calling raises (and raising all-in) involves pot odds when players are on shortstacks. Say the blinds are 200/400 with a 50 ante with 4 players. You are in the BB with 2000 and the SB (who is the shortest stack) goes all-in for 1000. You look down at 95o. YOU MUST CALL. There was 800 in the pot before the raise and the SB put another 800 in. There is now 1600 in the pot and you only need to pay 600 to get in. Unless you are very sure the raiser has an overpair (and it would be hard to be that sure in this situation) you are getting odds to call. I know this seems the opposite of the idea of calling only with good hands. But with these large blinds relative to the bet size, the size of the pot is just too great to fold. Just don't take this too far. I often see people calling raises of 7x BB with a wide range of hands because they think they have odds to take out the shortstack. They don't. Try out some situations in the SNG Power Tools demo and see what situations are calls and what situations are folds.
These last 2 points (2 & 3)will make you very hard to beat at the end of a SNG. You will be raising and stealing with many hands (this gives you 2 ways to win: 1 - they fold, 2-you showdown the best hand). You will also be playing cautiously when they raise you, patiently waiting for the right situation as they get anxious.
4. Be aware of your opponents.
This is the key to making the previous three concepts work extremely well.
Early tight play: If it is early and you have seen a player raise wildly, and showdown weak cards, then note this. Now when you have JJ or AQs you are not calling or folding, but reraising him. You want to take advatage of his obvious bad play. At times at the low limits you will see some really bad play, but you still have to wait for your opportunities. Just because you saw a guy go all-in early with K3s once, doesn't mean you want to call his all-in w/ K9 next time he raises. You have to wait for an opportunity where you can feel very confident about having the best hand and take his money then. Let the other players take their shots against him. It will work to your great advantage, sometimes the one guy's wild play will make everyone else wild too. This is a great time to sit back and wait for a hand you can play strongly against those who are playing wildly.
Blind stealing: In the middle stages, pay close attention to the players on your right and left. Those on your right will be the ones who may be stealing your blinds. Notice if they play a lot of hands, if they limp in with a wide variety of hands, if they fold to raises. Those on the left will be your targets for blind stealing. Notice if they fold a lot, if they call too much, if they ever reraise in the BB. Now use it. When a player that limps with a wide variety of hands, but does not call recklessly, limps into your BB and you have T9o and 8xBB in your stack, raise him all-in. He may call you, but he likely won't be an overwhelming favorite. You also just sent a message, "Don't limp into my BB." If you have noticed that a player has been calling with everything (usually players with large stacks tend to do this) don't try to steal with marginal hands, but raise and get paid off when you have good hands.
Calling raises: If someone is raising all-in every hand late, you can open up your calling standards (but don't get crazy, you likely have time to wait for a pretty good hand if the blinds are not huge). If someone has been playing very tight and they suddenly raise, be prepared to fold some pretty good hands. If someone has been raising 3x BB every time they enter the pot suddenly limps or minimum raises, alarms should go off. Any time someone deviates from their usual mode of play, it usually means they have an unusually good hand. Especially if they had been aggressive and suddenly act weak and passive.
Alright, these crucial points plus the info in the other guides to fill it out should get you on your way. To get better you just have to play, think about your play, and read about how to play. You can handle the first 2. The last is where the 2+2 message boards come in. The One Table Tournament Forum has a crapload of good (and some bad) info. You want to start with the good?
Start here. or Here. For whatever reason they keep changing where the link that works is.
The above post has links to so many other great posts full of ideas on almost every question you could have. If you run into problems refer back to it. I cannot recommend bookmarking it enough. Good luck.
Start by making sure you know a few terms that pop up often:
BB = Big Blind. Often used like this "3xBB", which means "an amount that is 3 times the amount of the Big Blind"
SB = Small Blind
Limp = Just calling the BB preflop, not raising.
Big Stack = Player with a lot of chips (most at the table).
Short Stack = Player with very few chips (least at the table).
Shortstacked = Generally having less than 10xBB.
Push = To go all-in.
Bubble = In a SNG that pays the top 3, the bubble is when there are 4 people left, 1 more than gets paid.
EV = Expected Value. Basically a play that is +EV is one that wins you money or chips as the case may be in the long run. At times there are plays that are +EV in chips and -EV in money.
Coordinated flop = A flop where the cards go well together for making straights or flushes. Jc Tc 9c is a very coordinated board and one where you want to slow down with AA if you don't have the Ac.
Continuation Bet = You bet on the flop after you have raised pre-flop. That's a continuation bet.
An "s" following a hand means it is "suited". example A7s = Ace Seven suited. "o" means offsuit (unsuited). T8o = Ten Eight offsuit.
An "x" instead of a card means it could be any card. Example: "Axs" means "Ace and any other card of the same suit."
Hand ranges shown with a "+" following them means anything better (of the same type) is included in the range. Examples: "99+" means any pair better than or equal to 99. "A7+" means any Ace with a 7 kicker or greater.
If any other terms confuse you check here first.
If that doesn't work use google.
The first thing you should do to get serious about winning is to KEEP GOOD RECORDS.
SNGTracker is a free tool available here. I can't think of a reason not to use it or something comparable. You have to manually enter PokerStars results but can easily set up the importation of PartyPoker ones. If you can remember, leave a comment on how you went out, or the hand the cost you most of your chips. If you end up seeing that you keep calling all-in raises with worse hands than your opponent, then think about that the next time your oppeonent raises you all-in and your hand is not that strong. If you have a streak of losing when you got all your chips in as a favorite, being able to see that should help you know to keep playing well and the cards will even out.
With that out of the way, here's the "guide":
The way to win SNGs, and to win at all poker really, is to take advantage of your opponents' mistakes while not making them yourself. The guides below are all good ways to balance those 2 concepts with relatively simple strategies (There are many more guides, but these 3 seem good). Give a look to all 3, especially noting the common themes. Then we'll expand on why these common themes exist.
Start with the one I learned from which can downloaded as a Word document here. The guide to beating the 10+1s at PartyPoker is a 1 page guide that is filled with good information. You can print it out and keep it by your computer or tape it to the back of your girlfriend's head. The Negatives: Even at 1 page, it is a little cumbersome if you are trying to follow it to the letter. It was also written for a era that has passed, specifically the days when partypoker had 10 hand levels and 800 starting chips. I also feel that the strategy might still encourage a few too many mistakes from people who have difficulty playing post-flop by getting them into hands they have trouble playing.
Moneymaker's guide is pretty decent despite the crap he gets for winning the WSOP and not being an absolute world-class player. It's put a bit more simply than the first one but assumes you don't need as much hand-holding. If the pot odds part has you confused, go here or just google "pot odds".
This post by CrisBrown at 2+2 also gives a good concise strategy. I don't really agree with slowplaying AA/KK but other than that I think this guide is very well done for such a short guide.
---Now, think about what the strategies have in common?
They all advocate playing few hands early on. They all advocate becoming aggressive in stealing blinds later. 2 of them mention (the 3rd probably forgot or thought it obvious) the important concept of having to have a much better hand to call a raise than to raise yourself. These 3 concepts, along with awareness of your opponents play, are the keys to becoming a winning player at low buy-in SNGs.
1. Play Few Hands Early On.
Why? Because you don't need to play many and doing so is likely to get you into trouble unless you are good at playing post-flop. If you are that good at it you probably aren't trying to win $6 SNGs. While everyone else is playing their hands you are watching how the other players play, seeing who is folding a lot (like you), who is raising a lot and who is calling everything down. Also if it gets to showdown you are looking at what kinds of hands they play and how they play them. For the hands you do play, you are trying to get into situations where your decisions are easy for the most part. What situations are those?
A) AA, KK, QQ - These are hands that you can raise very big with (5-6x BB + and extra BB for each limper already in, if already raised then you can go 3-4x the current pot size) and be willing to go all-in with preflop. Postflop you are wanting to be getting all your money in in cases where you don't flop an overcard and be careful when you do flop one.
B) 22-JJ - I like to limp in with these and if it has been raised call raises up to about 1/15th of my stack (as Moneymaker recommends). With these cards you are hoping to flop a set. If the flop is all cards lower than your pair then you proceed betting but with caution. If there are overcards almost always shut it down. Your opponents give you plenty of chances to take their chips, you can pick and choose the best of them.
C) AKs, AKo - These are kind of in between. I like to raise pretty big with these hands. I feel much better about playing them when I have position. Whether you want to go all-in preflop with them depends on the opponent, but calling an all-in raise with them is usually a mistake early on. Make a standard ~2/3 pot continuation bet if you miss the flop and be prepared to fold to a reraise.
In all the above situations you are trying to take advantage of your opponents mistakes (overvaluing top pair when you flop a set, loose calls of large raises) while not making them yourself. You also are allowing other people to make mistakes while you watch. Every time another player busts out of a SNG, your chances of winning money go up.
2. Be aggressive stealing blinds in the later stages.
A lot of this depends on reading people, which is point 4. Some people don't realize how valuable those blinds are. And what kind of hands you can steal with. I was going to post some examples but really you should go to this site, download the software and run through the free tutorial on blind stealing. It should make it very clear how much it is worth stealing and how many hands you can do it with.
Late in a SNG (blinds about 10% of my original stack) I make my standard raise about 2.5 x BB (adjust for opponents) and if I think I can get away with it I steal with all sorts of hands when I am in position. After all I have been playing tight up until now so I get credit for having a hand the first few times. Soon they may get sick of it and reraise when I have a legitimate hand. I like stealing with cards like 97, J8, even 65. This way when you get called your cards are probably live (the caller doesn't have them) and you have a deceptive hand. When you hit the flop they often think you missed and when you miss they often think you hit. You can also easily fold if reraised pre-flop. If you can be aggressive at the right times stealing blinds you can become a great SNG player.
As the other links have said, when the BB is 10% or more of your chips (or the players' chips left to act), you will usually be raising all-in (unless you are trapping with a great hand). If you think you can get away with it sometimes it is very smart to do this with a wide variety of hands. You will be increasing your stack significantly and you will be cultivating an aggressive image that usually makes weak players afraid to steal your blinds.
3. You often need a much better hand to call a raise than to raise yourself late in a SNG.
This is often called the "gap concept" due to the wide gap between raising and calling hands. Many people play this backwards and call with all sorts of things but only raise with great hands. You want to be very smart about calling raises and know that your cards must be very good. The link above to SNG Power Tools also will get you a tutorial in this concept. Work through it and see the concept played out in pure numbers.
Another point about calling raises (and raising all-in) involves pot odds when players are on shortstacks. Say the blinds are 200/400 with a 50 ante with 4 players. You are in the BB with 2000 and the SB (who is the shortest stack) goes all-in for 1000. You look down at 95o. YOU MUST CALL. There was 800 in the pot before the raise and the SB put another 800 in. There is now 1600 in the pot and you only need to pay 600 to get in. Unless you are very sure the raiser has an overpair (and it would be hard to be that sure in this situation) you are getting odds to call. I know this seems the opposite of the idea of calling only with good hands. But with these large blinds relative to the bet size, the size of the pot is just too great to fold. Just don't take this too far. I often see people calling raises of 7x BB with a wide range of hands because they think they have odds to take out the shortstack. They don't. Try out some situations in the SNG Power Tools demo and see what situations are calls and what situations are folds.
These last 2 points (2 & 3)will make you very hard to beat at the end of a SNG. You will be raising and stealing with many hands (this gives you 2 ways to win: 1 - they fold, 2-you showdown the best hand). You will also be playing cautiously when they raise you, patiently waiting for the right situation as they get anxious.
4. Be aware of your opponents.
This is the key to making the previous three concepts work extremely well.
Early tight play: If it is early and you have seen a player raise wildly, and showdown weak cards, then note this. Now when you have JJ or AQs you are not calling or folding, but reraising him. You want to take advatage of his obvious bad play. At times at the low limits you will see some really bad play, but you still have to wait for your opportunities. Just because you saw a guy go all-in early with K3s once, doesn't mean you want to call his all-in w/ K9 next time he raises. You have to wait for an opportunity where you can feel very confident about having the best hand and take his money then. Let the other players take their shots against him. It will work to your great advantage, sometimes the one guy's wild play will make everyone else wild too. This is a great time to sit back and wait for a hand you can play strongly against those who are playing wildly.
Blind stealing: In the middle stages, pay close attention to the players on your right and left. Those on your right will be the ones who may be stealing your blinds. Notice if they play a lot of hands, if they limp in with a wide variety of hands, if they fold to raises. Those on the left will be your targets for blind stealing. Notice if they fold a lot, if they call too much, if they ever reraise in the BB. Now use it. When a player that limps with a wide variety of hands, but does not call recklessly, limps into your BB and you have T9o and 8xBB in your stack, raise him all-in. He may call you, but he likely won't be an overwhelming favorite. You also just sent a message, "Don't limp into my BB." If you have noticed that a player has been calling with everything (usually players with large stacks tend to do this) don't try to steal with marginal hands, but raise and get paid off when you have good hands.
Calling raises: If someone is raising all-in every hand late, you can open up your calling standards (but don't get crazy, you likely have time to wait for a pretty good hand if the blinds are not huge). If someone has been playing very tight and they suddenly raise, be prepared to fold some pretty good hands. If someone has been raising 3x BB every time they enter the pot suddenly limps or minimum raises, alarms should go off. Any time someone deviates from their usual mode of play, it usually means they have an unusually good hand. Especially if they had been aggressive and suddenly act weak and passive.
Alright, these crucial points plus the info in the other guides to fill it out should get you on your way. To get better you just have to play, think about your play, and read about how to play. You can handle the first 2. The last is where the 2+2 message boards come in. The One Table Tournament Forum has a crapload of good (and some bad) info. You want to start with the good?
Start here. or Here. For whatever reason they keep changing where the link that works is.
The above post has links to so many other great posts full of ideas on almost every question you could have. If you run into problems refer back to it. I cannot recommend bookmarking it enough. Good luck.
posted by rx at 11:01 AM
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